Barbecoa, St Pauls

The Vibe

Barbecoa is a city bar full of city types but the food is pure southern comfort, sweet, rich, filling and homely. It’s a collaboration with Jamie Oliver and Adam Lang, who is known for his Daisy Mae’s casual BBQ joint in New York (Oprah’s fave). Just like Jamie’s Italian, the food is presented larger than life, mostly on boards, with bread towers on spikes. It’s in a shopping complex in St Paul’s but is still a good looking, open, light place, with staff running the joint with earpieces and military style precision. Not quite the romantic spot, it’s perfect for a post work date with someone who is a meat fan and a real foodie.

The Order

Riesling white wine, bread tower, olives on ice and pork scratchings. Then onto the main meats, keep it Texan and go for the pulled pork and baby ribs on a soupy/herby mash. Add rough cut chips, the sweetest chili and a token veg. Dessert will be the chocolate nemesis and some very necessary espressos.

The Game

Your date must be a sensual food lover who has no problem indulging with you- no place for fusspot dieters or veggies. Enjoy the food and the company, take the meal slowly, dragging it out through every course- ‘another bottle sir?’, ‘yes why not’. Pay the pricey bill without flinching, nay, without looking. Leave arm in arm, sleepy, full, tipsy and inordinately comfortable in each other’s company, a flash-forward to the cosines that future intimacy might bring.

The Faults

Unlikely to lead to the bedroom.

Sex Factor

1- Probably won’t happen directly after Barbecoa but nonetheless a different sort of sensual experience.